You've got a big hole in your reasoning there. Every developed country on earth EXCEPT the United States has universal healthcare in one form or another. Also, ALL of they pay less than we do.
With your complaint about not wanting to be taxed to pay for "other" peoples healthcare, tells me you have yet to encounter a serious problem with your insurance company. I promise you, it's only a matter of time before they let you down. Paying taxes for healthcare isnt for "others" it's for everyone, that includes you. We can sit here and be a bunch of narcissists and continue to watch our healthcare system implode, or we can come together as a united nation again and fix the damn thing. Anything is better than this system we've got. Anyone in congress or elsewhere who says "The American healthcare system is the best in the world" is a moron who has been living under a stone for the past 50 years, and has no clue about what goes on elsewhere in the developed world. In Europe, they have a few different approaches to universal healthcare. In all of their systems, you CANNOT be turned away as you can here. In all of their systems, you are GUARANTEED the RIGHT to see a doctor - seeing a doctor in America is a luxury for the rich who can afford it. Also, in all of their systems, they pay less than what we do - around half as much roughly. You cannot build an argument that you don't want to be taxed for the benefit of others because you will benefit every bit as much.
What would you rather do? In the United States, we pay around 15-16% of our GDP on healthcare to the private market. In Europe, they pay 7-10% of their GDP on healthcare, to their various approaches. I would rather pay $1000 per month to the government for a guaranteed socialist healthcare system than the same $1000 per month to a private healthcare insurance company. Why? The government has no profit motive - they seek only to break even - income matches expenses. The private industry on the other hand, seeks to turn a profit, and raises costs and puts the difference in their own pockets to the tune of millions of dollars. Every penny they put in their own pocket is a penny that wont be used to treat YOU when you get sick.
My insurance company has let me down, and I am a fierce enemy of for-profit healthcare as a result of it. The private market should never be allowed to have any control whatsoever over peoples lives. (EDIT: To clarify, it should have no bearing on who lives and who dies, but it does with our current healthcare system) But, the free, private healthcare system we have now is systematically denying care for millions of people, myself included, and people die and go bankrupt because of it. For-profit healthcare is hazardous to one's health and livliehood.. The profits MUST be taken out of the system if we're ever going to have a good system. As long as there is profit in the system, you can't trust your doctor. If your doctor orders treatment or a scan of some kind, how do you know that you really need the treatment? Often, it's just the doctor ordering a useless procedure for the sole purpose of bringing in some cash.
I'm at a crossroads in my own life, and I've made the decision that I must do what is best for me, and damn everyone else. What's best for me? Socialist healthcare. I refuse to fight the insurance companies tooth and nail to get them to do their fucking jobs. The way I see things, it's only a matter of time before I get sick, and my insurance company refuses to pay for life-saving treatment - they've already refused treatment for a very important quality-of-life treatment. Socialist healthcare does not turn people away like private market healthcare does. If socialist healthcare doesn't come to America within the next couple of years, I'm buying a one-way plane ticket at the very first opportunity I get, and I'm going to go to a country where they already have a profit-less, world-class socialist healthcare system where you can trust your doctor is doing anything that is in your best interest and doesnt try to do worthless crap just to benefit himself. I refuse to give my money to a bunch of greedy insurance & medical corporate executives. My life, and my quality-of-life are more important than their multi-million dollar estate, their Rolls Royce, their private jets.
In short, healthcare should be run as a human service - a mission of mercy -- not the current business enterprise that it currently is. In other countries, where healthcare is run as a service, not a business - it costs less. You cannot argue that we should defer healthcare reform based on cost. It costs more to do nothing than to act.
